Carrier Onboarding & Vetting Checklist Template

Owned by the carrier relations lead. Enter the date of the first load you plan to give the carrier: every due date counts from it in working days, and this template allows two working weeks before it. Record the USDOT number the carrier gave you, then check it yourself against FMCSA’s records in Phase 3, never only from the carrier’s own papers.

• Record the carrier, the first load date and the people — the carrier’s legal name and the USDOT and MC numbers it gave you, how it came to you, its equipment and lanes, the type of freight, the date of the first planned load, and the five people this checklist assigns
• Agree the loads, lanes and freight values you plan to give the carrier — the lanes and states, loads per week, the equipment, the highest value of goods on one load and any special handling; the insurance checks in Phase 4 are made against these figures
• Check the carrier against your own records — whether the carrier is already set up with you, was turned down or stopped before, or shares a phone number, email address, physical address or bank account with another carrier in your system
• Send the carrier packet request — the request sent to the carrier through your onboarding portal or from your own business email, listing what to return: the carrier profile, the W-9, the signed broker-carrier agreement, and its insurance agent’s details so the certificate comes from the agent

Collect the carrier’s own documents: the profile, the W-9 and the signed agreement. The certificate of insurance comes from the insurance agent, not the carrier. A carrier that sells its invoices to a factoring company adds the check of its notice of assignment.

• Receive the completed carrier profile — the legal name and any trade name, the physical and mailing addresses, the main phone number and email, the owners or officers, the dispatch contact, the number of trucks and drivers, the equipment, and whether its invoices are sold to a factoring company
• Check the W-9 against the carrier’s legal name — the IRS Form W-9 signed, with a taxpayer identification number (TIN) and a legal name that match the profile and the FMCSA record you check in Phase 3
• Get the certificate of insurance from the insurance agent — the certificate requested from the agent or insurer the carrier names and sent to you by the agent, with your company as certificate holder; a certificate that arrives only from the carrier is still checked with the agent in Phase 4
• Sign the broker-carrier agreement — the agreement signed by an owner or officer of the carrier, covering responsibility for the load, no re-brokering or passing loads to another carrier without your written consent, the insurance it must keep, payment terms, claims and indemnity, reviewed by whoever checks your contracts
• Check the factoring company and its notice of assignment — factoring only: the notice of assignment signed by the carrier, naming the factoring company that payments go to, confirmed with the factoring company on a phone number you find yourself, not the one on the notice

Look the carrier up yourself on FMCSA’s public records by its USDOT number, and compare what you find with the packet: the name, address and phone, the operating authority, the insurance on file, the MCS-150 date and the safety record. FMCSA moved registration to its new system, Motus, in May 2026; SAFER and the Licensing and Insurance (L&I) search still show the public record, and Motus has a public search of its own.

• Look the carrier up on SAFER by its USDOT number — the Company Snapshot: entity type, USDOT status, any out-of-service date, legal name, trade name, physical address and phone, compared with the carrier profile, and a copy saved with the date
• Check the operating authority covers the freight you will give it — on the L&I carrier search: authority as a motor carrier of property (not only as a broker), active, with the date it was granted and no pending revocation; record its age against your own minimum, if you set one
• Check the insurance and process agents on file with FMCSA — on L&I: the liability insurance filing (the insurer, the policy number and the amount on file), any pending cancellation, and the BOC-3 designation of process agents; the insurer should be the one on the certificate
• Check the MCS-150 date and the fleet size — the MCS-150 form date and mileage on SAFER, and the power units and drivers it reports, compared with the trucks and drivers in the profile
• Check the safety rating, inspections and crashes — the safety rating on SAFER (Satisfactory, Conditional, Unsatisfactory or none), roadside inspections and out-of-service rates for the last 24 months against the national averages SAFER shows, crashes, and the public measures on FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS)
• Check the hazardous materials registration and any safety permit — hazardous materials only: SAFER shows the carrier hauls hazardous materials, it holds a hazardous materials safety permit where FMCSA requires one for the materials, and its liability filing meets the level for them, checked again in Phase 4
• Review the conditional rating with the carrier — conditional rating only: the date of the rating, what FMCSA found, the carrier’s corrective actions and evidence, and whether your policy allows a carrier with a conditional rating, and on what terms

A certificate of insurance shows cover on the day it was issued. Confirm with the agent or insurer, on a number you find yourself, that the policies are in force, cover this carrier and meet the federal minimum and your own limits. Gaps add the task to close them.

• Confirm the policies with the agent or insurer — a call to the agent or insurer on a number you found yourself (the insurer’s website or your own records), confirming the policies are in force, the named insured is the carrier’s legal name, and the policy numbers and dates match the certificate
• Check the auto liability limit and the vehicles covered — at least the federal minimum for the freight and the vehicles, and any higher limit in your agreement, and whether the policy covers any vehicle or only listed vehicles; if only listed vehicles, the trucks the carrier will use are on the list
• Check the cargo cover against your highest load value — the cargo limit against the highest value of goods on one load from Phase 1, the deductible, and the exclusions that matter for your freight, such as theft, unattended vehicles or named commodities
• Check the certificate holder and the other cover you require — your company named as certificate holder, and as additional insured if your agreement asks for it, and any general liability, workers’ compensation or trailer interchange cover your agreement requires
• Record whether the cover meets your requirements — the result of the insurance checks, the policy expiry dates for monitoring, and anything short of what you require
• Close the insurance gaps — gaps only: what was short, what the carrier and its agent changed, the new certificate from the agent and a further call to confirm it; a gap that cannot be closed is recorded for the approver

Make sure the company you are dealing with is the carrier on the FMCSA record, that the person you speak to works for it, and that it will haul your loads with its own trucks. FMCSA says a USDOT number belongs to the same legal person forever and may not be sold, transferred, rented or leased. Red flags that are not explained add the task to escalate them.

• Call the carrier on the phone number on its FMCSA record — a call to the phone number on the FMCSA record, not the one in the email or the packet, confirming that the carrier asked to work with you and that your contact works for it
• Check the email address, domain and contact details — the contact’s email domain and phone number against the carrier’s own website and the FMCSA record, and any sign of a look-alike domain or a recent change of email or phone on the record
• Check the address and the people who run the carrier — the physical address is a real place the business operates from, the owners or officers match the FMCSA record and the person who signed the agreement, and the business is registered and active in its state
• Look for signs of a bought or hijacked identity — recent changes to the carrier’s name, address, phone or email on the FMCSA record, authority that was dormant and has recently come back into use, or authority granted years ago with little or no inspection history, compared with what the carrier tells you
• Check the trucks and drivers it will use — the trucks and trailers it will use, with unit numbers, plates and VINs where your policy asks for them, against the insurance and the fleet size on the FMCSA record, and that the drivers work for the carrier
• Check the carrier will haul the loads itself — signs that loads could be passed to another carrier (double brokering): no trucks of its own, a dispatcher who works for several carriers, requests to send paperwork or payment to another name, or a refusal to use tracking; the agreement forbids re-brokering without your written consent
• Record the red flags and how each was explained — every red flag found in this phase and the earlier ones, how each was checked, and whether any is still not explained
• Escalate the red flags that are not explained — unexplained red flags only: the compliance reviewer and the approver go through them together, further checks are made, and the result is written down for the decision; a carrier that cannot explain them is not approved

The compliance reviewer sums up the checks and recommends. The approver alone records Approved, Approved with conditions or Not approved, and nothing after the decision can be completed until it is recorded. Not approved hides the set-up, the first load and the review, and shows the task to close the onboarding.

• Prepare the onboarding summary and recommendation — each check with its result, the insurance limits and expiry dates, the safety record, any red flags and how they were resolved, proposed conditions, and a recommendation to the approver
• Record the approval decision — Approved, Approved with conditions or Not approved, with the conditions or the reasons, recorded by the approver alone
• Tell the carrier and close the onboarding — not approved only: the carrier told it has not been approved, no loads offered, the carrier marked as not approved in your own records with the reasons kept for your use, and the file kept

Applies only when the carrier is approved, with or without conditions. Set the carrier up in your transportation management system (TMS) from checked details only, verify where payments go by a call-back, and set up the monitoring that keeps the checks current. Approval with conditions adds the task to meet them.

• Set the carrier up in your TMS — the carrier record created from the checked details: legal name, USDOT and MC numbers, the checked phone and email, equipment, approved lanes, insurance limits and expiry dates, and the approval status with any conditions
• Verify the payment details by call-back — the bank details, or the factoring company’s remittance details, received in writing and then confirmed by calling the carrier or the factoring company on a number from your own checked records, never one from the message that sent them; the account name matches the carrier or the factoring company on the notice of assignment, and a second person checks the entry
• Set the rule for any change to payment details — a later request to change where payments go is held until it is confirmed by a call-back on the checked number and approved by a second person, requests by email alone are refused, and the carrier is told this rule
• Meet the conditions of approval — approved with conditions only: each condition the approver set, such as limited lanes or load values, a higher limit or extra cover, or tracking on every load, recorded in the TMS and met before the first load, or the approver told in writing that it is not
• Set up monitoring of authority, insurance and safety — changes to the carrier’s authority, insurance filings, safety rating, out-of-service orders and contact details on the FMCSA record watched, through a monitoring service or scheduled checks, with an owner for each alert
• Diary the insurance renewal dates — each policy’s expiry date diarised, a new certificate requested from the agent before it, and no loads offered if cover lapses
• Send the carrier your load instructions — how loads are offered and confirmed, the rate confirmation, tracking and check calls, proof of delivery, invoicing and payment terms, claims, and the contacts for each, sent to the carrier’s checked email address

Applies only when the carrier is approved, with or without conditions. Watch the first load closely: the truck and driver that arrive should be the carrier’s own, the paperwork should match, and payment goes only to the verified account.

• Confirm the truck and driver before the first load — the rate confirmation sent to the carrier’s checked email, and the driver’s name and the truck and trailer numbers confirmed with the carrier’s dispatcher on the checked phone number
• Track the first load from pickup to delivery — at pickup, the truck shows the carrier’s name and USDOT number and matches the unit confirmed; tracking or check calls run to delivery, and any change of truck, driver or carrier is questioned at once
• Record how the first load went — on-time pickup and delivery, damage or shortages, communication, paperwork, and any problem to follow up
• Check the paperwork and pay the first invoice — the invoice in the carrier’s legal name, or from the factoring company on the notice, the signed proof of delivery and bill of lading, the agreed rate, and payment to the verified account only

Applies only when the carrier is approved, with or without conditions. Review the carrier after its first month of loads, set when it is checked again, and file the onboarding record. In this template the review falls 20 working days after the first load.

• Review the carrier after its first month — loads carried, service, claims, any alerts from monitoring, and whether it stays approved, has its conditions changed, or is stopped
• Set when the carrier is checked again — the FMCSA, insurance and identity checks repeated before the next load after a set time without loads, after any monitoring alert, and at a fixed interval; this template leaves those intervals to your own policy
• File the onboarding record — the packet, the dated copies of FMCSA’s records, the call notes, the summary and the decision kept together, for as long as your records policy says